While My Mash Tun Gently Weeps.....

It's been a while since I've been able to brew.  Back in December was when I brewed and bottled an awesomely tasty Pale Ale, one that I am extremely happy with and very proud to say I brewed.  My recipe was based upon EdWort's Bee Cave Haus Pale Ale.  It's been tweaked slightly to showcase the Centennial Hops that I got from Michigan Hop Alliance which were picked from up in my old neck of the woods of Northern Michigan. The two cases I brewed are almost gone and though I'm definitely not hurting for beer to drink, I'd like to make this my next batch.  My next batch also happens to be my first foray into all-grain brewing.  Santa Clause was very generous so I now have a Rubbermaid 10 gallon cooler just begging to be converted to a mash tun along with a 15 Gal Home Beer Brewing Kettle w/ Valve & Thermometer  and a Copper Immersion Wort Chiller 50' X 3/8" w/ Vinyl Hoses that is just itching to be put to the test.  Now the only thing I need is......time.  A 6 month old baby boy, an empty rental unit and it's maintenance, a Jeep whose transmission doesn't feel like shifting into 4th or 5th gear and dealing with being sick since November of last year makes my spare time = zero, zilch, nada.

Now I simply sit back and wait for an opening in my still developing schedule......

Craft Beer Makes its Move on the Minor Leagues

Once thought to be the sole domain of the BMC breweries, craft beer is being spotted at more and more minor league baseball team stadiums. The Lansing Lugnuts, a class A ball team associated with the Toronto Blue Jays, announced that they will be offering craft beer this coming season.

Source: Mlive.com

"The Lansing Lugnuts will debut a new “craft beer garden” at Cooley Law School Stadium this coming baseball season.
Craft beer is a currently a popular fad among beer connoisseurs, according to Lugnuts Assistant General Manager Nick Grueser.
“It’s basically like a lot of your little microbrews that are around town,” Grueser said. “They’re not the big Budweisers of the world that are mass producing all over the place.”

While Mr. Gruesers would like to label craft beer as a "fad", I have a more optimistic feeling about the craft beer movement and see it as a long-term market shift that is experiencing incredible short term growth.

There are several things I'm interested in see in this development.  What kind of "Craft Beer" will it be and how much will it cost?  Their distributor, Dan Henry Distributing, lists some of the larger names in the craft beer world such as Anchor, Sierra Nevada, Goose Island & Sam Adams but there are also some smaller breweries such as Atwater Brewery out of Detroit.  I hope they at least have a mix of local and national craft beer selections at a reasonable price.